Robots -- Our Helpers in Space

From EurekAlert:

"A big advantage of space robots is that they need neither food nor drink and can support very inhospitable conditions. More important still, although expensive to design and produce, their loss is always preferable to that of an astronaut. At this month's ASTRA 2004 workshop robots designed in ESA's space research and technical centre in the Netherlands attracted much attention.

'On Earth, robots regularly take over when it comes to repetitive tasks or when human health may be at risk. They are used to assemble cars, deactivate bombs, weld pipes at the bottom of the sea and work in nuclear power plants,' says Gianfranco Visentin, Head of ESA's Automation and Robotics Section at ESA's ESTEC, the Netherlands. 'In space, it is even more attractive to use robots,' he emphasises. 'They can support or replace people to carry out tasks that are too dangerous, too difficult, repetitive, time consuming or even impossible for astronauts, they can also be faster and more precise than people.'

Jokingly he adds, 'plus they can operate around the clock and do not need to break for lunch or sleep'. "